3 things you’ll need to decide about your print project

When someone wants a price for a print project, there are 3 important things we’ll need to know in order to price it accurately.

1. Paper Stock. There are many, many paper options. The quality and prices vary widely. And, some print projects involve more than one stock. Many booklets, for example, are created using different stocks for the cover and interior pages. Generally speaking, the thicker the paper (or cover stock) chosen, the pricier the job will be. And thicker stocks may require scoring to properly fold them, pushing the price of the job higher.

2. Color vs. Black and White. Whether a job is going to be printed in color vs. black and white makes a big difference in price. And with every job there can be some of each. In order to accurately price your project, we’ll need to know exactly how many pages will be printed in color and how many will be printed in black & white. Any color other than black on the page (regardless of the area the color covers — even a single dot) will make that page a “color” page. Things look better in color for sure (and we have great equipment to help you show off your nice artwork), but since color costs more for us to print, it pushes your price up.

3. Finishing Requirements. How much (if any) cutting and finishing will be required to complete your job will affect the price. If your art is 8.5 x 5.5, 8.5 x 11 or 11 x 17, we won’t need to cut it to size. But for other size projects, we’ll need to cut or trim. If your art bleeds on 1, 2, 3 or 4 edges, more cutting time will be necessary. Lastly, think about binding. Coil and comb binding are both considerably more expensive than saddle stitching. Yes, binding provides a very professional look but it comes at a cost. You may want to get pricing for more than 1 option.

We hope this post will give you a little help in getting your next print project up and running!

About Tom Gimer

I guess you’d call me the “technical” guy at the shop. When the machines start to act up, they call me in. (I then call a service tech.) When I’m not dealing with the machines or writing or editing copy and/or code for clients, I also practice real estate law. It’s a long story. Connect with me on LinkedIn or on the golf course.